The rush of cloud adoption and the explosion in mobile device usage have left organizations with information scattered across resources and applications, both inside and outside the traditional perimeter. Each of these applications and information sources requires unique access, creating “islands of identity” that become increasingly complex to manage—while making it more difficult for users to quickly and conveniently access what they need to do their jobs. As users travel from application to application (or island to island), they must remember multiple credentials, including usernames and passwords, while grappling with varying access policies and processes.
In many cases, a company could use multiple approaches to securing its islands of identity—perhaps a VPN, PAM, internal web portal and multiple SaaS vendors. Each resource is working to protect access to its assigned area, but the company as a whole lacks centralized visibility, a convenient user experience, and a consistent approach to authentication policies and procedures.
For IT security and operations teams, these daily realities complicate the authentication and identity process:
The VPN gauntlet. As more and more data moves to the cloud, IT defaults to what it knows, requiring everyone to access cloud apps through the VPN. This introduces a complex user experience, duplicates authentication processes and forfeits the benefits of always-on mobile cloud access.
The Fort Knox paradox. Information Technologist's historic approach has been to implement the strongest form of authentication available, all the time. In a perimeter-less world, you need the flexibility to apply intelligent, appropriate control, without frustrating users or disrupting business continuity.
Mob rule. Users demand access to an ever-widening array of applications, via a similarly expanding range of mobile devices. Increasingly distributed workforces drive toward two seemingly competing objectives: convenient access for users and secured access for IT.
Balancing the needs of the company or enterprise to limit access to its most valuable information against those of users who want convenient access to enterprise data is an ongoing challenge. Even today, most enterprises use password rules such as length requirements combined with character mandates. There is thus a need to enhance security in administering password authentication policies.